(She's wearing the same swimsuit from the Beach Episode and the outfit above is what she's wearing throughout the chapter!)
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I was at the swimming pool with Naru, having a great time in the water when I spotted Naru sitting on the edge, looking lost in her thoughts. I frowned to myself, this wasn't the first time that Naru's had that look in her eye and it all started happening when she was attacked by Nephrite. I swam over to her, floating in front of her to see if she noticed me. She didn't so I lightly splashed her, calling out, "Naru. Naru."
She snapped out of it, rolling her eyes at me, "You're such a kid, Usagi."
I gave her cheeky smile, "Well, I try my best...what's got you lost in thought Naru? Are you in love?"
I wiggled my eyebrows playfully as Naru sighed, a blush covering her cheeks, "That's right...I feel like a grown-up in love."
I blinked in confusion before getting hit with a beach ball. It was unexpected so I lost my balance a little, almost going underwater. I couched up the water that got in my mouth before looking at Naru, "Oh, do I know this special person?"
Naru bit her lip before sighing, placing her hands on her cheeks as she replied, "It's Mr. Sanjoin."
My eyes widened, shocked to hear that name come out of Naru's mouth. Naru noticed my reaction, stating, "You don't need to act so surprised. I know he's a little older than me, but age means nothing if there's love."
I bit my lip, slowly stating, "I don't know Naru...I'll respect your feelings about him, just please be cautious, I've heard he's bad news."
Naru looked at me before nodding, "Okay, I'll take your advice Usagi. Thanks."
I gave her a smile before splashing her once again, causing her to laugh and jump in the pool with me.
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I was with Rei, Ami, and Luna telling them about Naru being in love with Nephrite. Luna sighed, "This has become complicated."
Ami and I nodded in agreement as Rei spoke, "We need to tell Naru that Masato Sanjoin is really Nephrite..."
Ami frowned, "Maybe we should wait and see for a while."
I shook my head, looking at the ground, "It's not that simple. She's not going to listen to that. Look, I told her that I'll trust her judgement but that he was a bad guy. She took my advice. We should just wait and see like Ami suggested."
Rei scoffed, "What if she just said that to get you off her back, Usagi? We need to tell her we won't know what she really feels unless we do so."
Ami touched Rei's shoulder, "Calm down, Rei..."
I glared at Rei, "No! I will not betray my friend! Naru is a civilian, she doesn't know Nephrite like we do! She's in love with the character he plays, Masato Sanjoin, and that just means we need to defeat him as soon as possible. Once we do, we can tell her that he left the country and she'll be heartbroken, but she'll get over him. That is our best and only option unless otherwise."
Rei and Ami looked at me, shocked by my outburst. Luna walked over to me, hitting my leg with her head. I reached down and scratched her head, speaking softly, "I know you're just trying to help Rei, I get that. I just...I can't lose one of my best friends. I'll try to talk to her again today."
The girls nodded and Luna and I left Rei's place together, both of us thinking about Naru's feelings for Nephrite. I know telling her all about Nephrite is the best thing for her but I don't want to lose my best friend over a guy, a guy that wants to suck all the energy out of us. I mean, there has to be some way that I could warn Naru about Nephrite without her hating me forever. I sighed sadly, spotting the Game Center from the corner of my eye and thought about Motoki. He might be able to help me with this dilemma. I walked in, looking around for Motoki and spotted him helping a girl play a game. I sighed sadly, muttering, "He's busy...looks like I'm on my own..."
I felt these weird shivers down my spine and slowly turned around, seeing Mamoru standing behind me with a smirk, "Hey, Bun-head!"
My left eye twitched and I glared at him. He snickered, smirk still on his stupid face, "Hey, Motoki! Miss Bun-head here is turning all puffy from not getting enough attention from you!"
I blushed, retorting, "That is not what's happening, jerkwad!" I turned to Motoki, giving him a smile, "He's lying, I promise."
Motoki walked over to us with a smile, "Hey Usagi, when did you get here? Sorry for not noticing earlier."
I waved his apology away, "It's okay Motoki. I just got here. Are you super busy right now?"
Motoki shook his head, "I'm done with work for today. Would you like to grab some coffee?"
I nodded with a smile, "Sure, I really need to ask you for some advice."
Mamoru chimed in, "I'm coming too. I don't have anything to do anyway."
I huffed with an eyeroll as Motoki smiled at his friend, "Sounds good."
We all left Game Center and headed to the nearest café, taking a seat at a booth and the guys ordered their coffees. I didn't order anything and once they had their coffees, I explained the situation, "My best friend Naru has fallen in love, which is great. Love is an amazing thing. However, the guy is...a bad person but she doesn't think he's bad..."
I bit my lip as Motoki looked at me, "And?"
I sighed, looking down at the table, "I warned her about him, and she said she'll take my advice but I feel like she said that so I'd drop it. I asked my other friends about it and they both had conflicting opinions. What do you think I should do? If I tell her the truth...my might lose my friend forever, and if I don't and she finds out the hard way, I might lose her in a completely different way."
Motoki thought for a moment, before giving me a gentle smile, "I don't think you need to rush your decision. Maybe you should wait and see how things play out?"
I nodded; Motoki seems to have the same idea as Ami. Mamoru placed his cup down, stating, "Just waiting won't change anything. Sometimes you need to have the courage to tell someone the truth."
I looked over at Mamoru as Motoki nodded, "Yeah...Mamoru is probably right. If you tell her the truth, Naru might get mad...but as her friend, it's something you should do."
I stared at the two for a moment before smiling happily, "Thank you both so much. You have no idea how much you've helped me. Don't worry about paying, it's on me!"
I looked away from the boys, quickly waving the waiter over so I could order a few snacks for us.
___TIME SKIP___
Luna groaned, looking up at me, "Usagi, we have been walking all night. Let's just go to Naru's and talk to her already."
I bit my lip before sighing in defeat, looking down at Luna, "I know you're right...but this is so hard! How can I tell Naru to stay away from him without telling her the truth about me? Let's be honest, she's going to ask me how I know about him being a bad guy. We share the friends, besides Ami and Rei, but she knows Ami isn't really the social type because we go to the same school. I told her that Rei is boy crazy so she would think that I'm trying to talk her out of her crush so Rei can sweep in and take Nephrite for herself. Which, is disgusting, by the way."
I looked up to see Naru's Mom walking towards us, looking around for something. I frowned and walked over to her, "Naru's Mom?"
She quickly ran over to me, looking at me with scared, wide eyes, "Have you seen my daughter?"
I shook my head, "No, not since this morning. Did something happen?"
Naru's mom quickly explained, "She took a gem stone from the store and ran out."
I gasped, my eyes widened, "What?! That doesn't sound like Naru at all! Do you have any ideas on where she could be? Why she did that?"
Naru's mom thought for a moment, wrinkling her eyebrows in thought, "Well, she got a phone call from someone called Masato Sanjoin."
I shook my head, "No...That guy is a bad person. I'll help you look for her!"
I quickly took off running, Luna right beside me, as we looked around for Naru, hoping to stop whatever Nephrite's plans. I glared at the road ahead of me, muttering, "I won't let you take advantage of Naru's friends, Nephrite..."
Luna shouted at me, "Usagi, time to transform!"
I nodded, ducking into an alleyway, and threw my hand in the air, "Moon Prism Power Make Up!"
I quickly moved out of the alleyway and started running again, Luna right on my tail. I made it to a park, seeing Nephrite beginning to walk away with Naru. I shouted, running towards them, "Stop!"
I stopped running, standing with my hands on my hips and glare on my face as they turned around. Naru gasped, "S-Sailor Moon...Why are you here?"
I looked at Naru, glancing over at Nephrite to make sure he doesn't move, "Your mom is looking everywhere for you, worried sick. I'm so sorry to tell you this but Masato Sanjoin is not who you think he is. His real name is Nephrite and he's a member of an evil organization known as the Dark Kingdom."
Naru gasped softly as Nephrite glared at me, "Don't interfere with my plans!"
I scoffed, "I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for love and for justice! I am Sailor Moon! If I want to interfere I can! In the name of the Moon, you will be punished!"
Nephrite fired his powers at me and I leaped into the air, avoiding the blast. He started firing multiple blasts at me and I dodged them all with a yelp, "Hey! This isn't fair and he's proving my point Naru! He's evil!"
Nephrite smirked at me, "I'm done playing around."
I scoffed, rubbing my arm that was nicked by his blast, "That was you playing? You Dark Kingdom nerds need to learn the definition of playing."
My eyes widened as I quickly flipped backwards, flipping away from the blast that was definitely following me. Once the dust cleared, the ground was ruined and I looked over at Luna, "Is it bad that I miss Jadeite? He was a sadist but at least he didn't do that...right?"
Nephrite chuckled, "You managed to dodge that, but I won't miss the next time..."
I held my fists up, muttering, "I would like to say that I very much hate this man. I'd rather deal with Mamoru than him...never mind, Nephrite over Mamoru any day. Hands on, number one pick."
I heard Rei sigh, disappointed, "Really Sailor Moon, Jadeite? I honestly think they're neck and neck with their mannerism."
Ami giggled, "Heads in the game ladies!"
I smirked, turning around to see Ami and Rei behind me, "Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury...nice of you both to show up. Also, I fought Jadeite longer than you guys, he wasn't that bad."
They both rolled their eyes as Rei stated, "He tried to kill us with airplanes."
Before I could reply, Luna cleared her throat, giving us all a pointed stare. Rei smirked, "Sailor Mars is here!"
Ami smirked as well, "Sailor Mercury is here!"
Nephrite smirked at us, "Nice to see all three of you. I'll send all of you to hell!"
I pointed at Nephrite, "See that aggression?! Jadeite was just gonna tap us with the planes...he's sending us to hell!"
Ami quickly used her powers, "Bubble Spray!"
Ami's bubbles fogged over the area, hiding us from Nephrite's view. Rei used her powers next, "Fire Soul!"
Sadly, Nephrite managed to dodge most of the fire just in time, getting grazed by it instead. He landed on one of his knees, glaring at us. I looked over at Naru, reaching up to grab my tiara, whispering softly, "I'm so sorry Naru, I hope you can forgive me one day." I called out loudly, "Moon Tiara Action!"
As my tiara was flying towards Nephrite, Naru ran right in front of Nephrite, covering him with her body. She glared at us, "I will protect Mr. Sanjoin!"
Naru closed her eyes, accepting her faith as I threw my hand out, calling my tiara back to me. My tiara flew back into my hand as Naru slowly opened her eyes, seeing that she was still standing. She shouted, "Don't hurt Mr. Sanjoin!"
Ami shook her head, "We can't forgive him for what he's done!"
Rei glared at Naru, "Move out of the way!"
Naru shook her head, "No! I-I won't move even if you kill me!"
Ami questioned Naru, "Why would you go so far to defend him?"
Naru answered softly, tears falling from her eyes, "Because I love him...I love him so much! I'll protect him even if it costs me my life!"
I stared at my tiara in my hands, my tears slightly blurring my vision. I sniffled, placing my tiara on my head as I felt something coming towards us. A monster ran over to us, "So that's the Silver Crystal!"
The monster started fighting Nephrite, causing him to drop a black crystal. Naru bent down to pick it up and the monster jumped towards her, snarling, "Hand it over to me."
I quickly ran forward, jumping into the air and throwing my self in front of Naru, ready to fight the monster. Nephrite shouted, "Naru!"
Nephrite fired a blast at the monster, splitting her mask in half. I looked down at Naru before looking back at Nephrite, tilting my head in confusion. Naru whispered softly, "Mr. Sanjoin saved me..."
The monster cried out, angered, "Damn you Nephrite...Are you trying to protect the human?"
The monster ran towards Nephrite, and they began to fight one another. I bent down to Naru and stated, "We need to move. Now."
I helped Naru to her feet and quickly led her to a covered area, away from the fight. Naru shook her head, "No, I won't leave him! You'll kill him!"
I snapped, glaring at her, "NO! You are staying here! That monster will kill you because you're human, and now that Nephrite actually protected you, you have an even bigger target on your back now. I can't make any promises about Nephrite making it out of this unharmed, but I won't kill him this time. He saved your life, so I'll save his. Just know that you make love him, but he was behind the attack on your friend, the girl you see as an older sister, and every monster attack after her. Him. No one else."
I ran away from Naru after that, not waiting for her response. I quickly reached up for my tiara, shouting, "Moon Tiara Action!"
My tiara flew straight towards the monster, hitting her right in the face. The monster screamed as she was destroyed, becoming a stone statue, and exploding. I glared at Nephrite, "There. You saved her, I saved you. Everything is even. She is safe and far away from you. We will let you leave this one time, just please, leave Naru alone."
He stared at me, pulling the silver gemstone Naru gave him and held it out to me. I took the gem from him and he turned to walk away. He stopped a few feet away from us before stopping with an evil laugh, slowly turning around with a smirk, "Listen to me, when I obtain the Silver Crystal, the entire universe will belong to the Dark Kingdom."
I muttered, "Yeah, they'll definitely let you back in once you hand them this Silver Crystal. It's not like you didn't just betray them by protecting the "pathetic humans" of this universe."
Nephrite continued his little speech, "You won't be able to play hero for much longer...Until then, keep on talking about love and justice...Farewell."
He turned around again, hand in the air as he disappeared right in front of us, his evil laugh echoing through the air. I saw something twinkle from the corner of my eye and looked up at the sky, seeing a shooting star. I closed my eyes, Shooting star, please hear my wish...protect Naru's heart from the heartbreak I fear is coming her way soon.
Hope you guys enjoy! I'm so proud of myself for finishing this one way sooner than I thought! I also wanted to say thank you so much for the votes and adding your stories to your reading lists. It makes me so happy that so many people are reading/read/plan on reading my book! You guys are so awesome and I hope you all have an amazing day/night! <3